Summary

A Great little First Person Stealth Game.

The Good

I give credit where credit is due. The French know their political intrigue and have endued this game with a convoluted tale of backstabbing and double crossing. You start off as a valued body guard who is framed for a terrible murder. You're recruited by both the loyalists who want to see the rightful emperor restored to power and by a mystical figure who grants you magic powers to assist in your missions.

You're an assassin who has to remove political leaders from positions and assist the loyalists in their goals. Here is where the fun starts. You take two approaches to game play. You can hide, and sneak around, avoiding unnecessary kills. You can also go through and start killing everyone you see. The actions you take will reflect on your ending. You have the ability to jump, climb and teleport to various locations to get around tough obstacles. I tend to avoid killing in games like this for the challenge.

The levels are sprawling and complex. You can usually find more than one way to approach a location and with blink, you can often reach hard to find places. Light plays an important part of the game because it makes you more visible and more likely to attract attention. You spend a great deal of time exploring ruins that are infested with a plague that turns people into zombies.

There are hidden treasures everywhere, and exploration is necessary. You also have the option to restart any level you completed to see if you can make a better run of it.

There are interesting characters that are voiced by the likes of Susan Sarandon and Brad Doriff. The game is more than a little obvious in its inspiration, as it quotes "Thief" more than once. Once in a while, you get a outcome you didn't expect which makes your decisions more interesting.

The Bad

Be prepared to save and load a lot. You will die many times as you learn the layout of each level. You never know what to expect.

The powers handed out to you are a mixed bag. Some are extremely useful, and others barely do anything.